7 Smart Reasons To Use Email Marketing For Your Brand

With the year drawing to a close and the festive season nearly upon us, we thought we’d spread a little holiday cheer with a gift of some fresh new ideas for building your brand.

In the vast spectrum of modern media, email is probably the most misunderstood, most under-utilised, and most abused media there is. The irony, of course, is that email marketing, done properly, can also be the most profitable media in terms of return on investment.

There is also a wide range of side benefits that come from implementing a well-planned email marketing strategy. Here are just 7 great reasons your brand should start using email marketing next year:

1. Cost Effective

Email is one of the cheapest mediums you can use to communicate with your customers. There are no printing costs and only minimal design costs.

There’s also no charge to send out thousands of emails to your customer base. And with proper email campaign management you can be sending out emails every month or every week without any additional media expense.

2. Builds Trust

One of the main – and most overlooked – advantages of email is that you can communicate with your customers on a personalised basis. If you have a proper strategy in place you can send bulk emails to your customers that look like they have been written to them as individuals.

People tend to do business with people they know, like and trust, and personalised communication builds loyalty to your brand.

3. Highly Targeted = Increased Sales

The secret sauce and the number one feature of email that makes it so effective is is something known as “segmentation.”

Contrary to popular belief, any mass market is not made up of the same kinds of people. For starters, you have males and females, old and young, rural and urban dwellers, high- and low-income earners.

Speaking to each of these groups of people in the same way is a waste of your marketing dollars. Segmentation, in combination with a well-thought-out email strategy allows you to speak to specific groups slightly differently, and only send them offers they are likely to respond to.

For example, if you’re in retail, you wouldn’t send middle-aged men the latest deals on baby products; instead you would send deals on sport and camping equipment, specials on braai products etc.

4. Foundation of an Effective Digital Strategy

Having a website and a basic social media presence is essential to doing business these days. But without an effective email marketing plan, you’re barely scratching the surface of how effective these online assets can be.

Email links everything together and you can direct email traffic to your website, blog, social media accounts, or pretty much anywhere you like.

5. Increases Brand Awareness

Another incredibly powerful feature of email is that it boosts brand awareness and creates almost constant top-of mind status with your customer base, but in a way that is always relevant.

Almost everyone has email these days. So imagine if YOUR company is in their inboxes every week or every month, offering valuable content and deals for tailored to them. Who do you think they will choose when it comes to making a buying decision? Certainly not your competitors!

6. Builds Assets

Another grossly overlooked aspect of email marketing is the RELATIONSHIP your company has with its with list of customers. Email allows you to develop genuine relationships with your customers, which enables you (in combination with segmentation) to turn your list of buyers into brand advocates, and genuine assets to your business.

7. Collect Customer Data

Email is also a fantastic research tool. You can run surveys with your customer base and find out what they want to buy or how you can serve them better.

Email allows you to test deals, offers and products before you develop them. It also allows you to test ideas and appeals of your advertising before you roll them out into other media.

There You Have It!

If you are considering adding another weapon to your marketing arsenal next year, or you want to add digital to your marketing mix, email is the quickest, easiest and most cost effective media you can choose.

If you would like to add this powerful marketing method to your advertising, contact us today and we can discuss implementing an email marketing strategy that is tailor-made for your brand.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Ogilvy & Mather Namibia!